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HBO is promoting filmmaker Alex Gibney’s

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“documentary” on Scientology
as part of its block of

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“Original” programming.

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Original as in: pure fiction.

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It’s also biased and deceitful,

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without a shred of actual journalism –

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something you might expect
from a piece of tabloid propaganda.

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Considering Gibney’s “pedigree”,
this is no surprise.

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His father, Frank Gibney, maintained
a public persona as a journalist.

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But according to a Congressional Report
and the New York Times,

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Frank Gibney was part of a
covert CIA operation

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to release propaganda through
book publishing and the media.

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Apparently the apple doesn’t fall
far from the tree.

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Because Alex Gibney’s HBO piece
is textbook propaganda.

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Gibney’s method –
ferret out a rash of false claims

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and bizarre allegations
in the service of a prejudicial agenda

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and anything not supporting that tale

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forget it, ignore it or throw it out.

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Or just falsify the “evidence”.

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Take one absurd claim
made by Marty Rathbun –

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the leader of a tiny failed Texas cult.

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Rathbun, expelled from the
Church of Scientology

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more than a decade ago for incompetence,
lying and violence.

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But Alex Gibney goes out of his way

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to dust off video footage of him

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from a cable TV show
aired five years earlier

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then drops it directly into his film

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as if it were breaking news.

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Footage with Rathbun making this
incendiary bit of sensationalism:

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In late '03. There was a beating every day.

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And if it wasn’t him doing it,
it was from him

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inciting others to do it to others.

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Alex Gibney doesn’t use his own interview

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with Rathbun to make that accusation.

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Because Rathbun couldn’t repeat it,

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since his bogus claim had already
been proven utterly false

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in an eight and a half-minute video.

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A video that has been
posted online for five years

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and distributed in a hundred thousand
magazine copies.

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One that definitively proves
with documentary footage

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that the person against whom
Rathbun directed his allegations

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wasn’t even there.

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Gibney knows Marty Rathbun was lying.

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And so, to get around the inconvenient fact

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that Rathbun’s tale was provably false

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Alex Gibney doctored the tape.

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Slicing off the beginning of the video clip –

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the part that time-stamped
Rathbun’s phony claim

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and proved it was a lie.

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And in so doing, Alex Gibney
manufactured a scenario

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he hoped would smear
the Church and its leadership.

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Altering video to mislead the audience

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is one of the more egregious violations
of journalistic ethics.

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But Alex Gibney didn’t just doctor
Marty Rathbun’s sound bite,

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he doctored the whole story.

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Because also appearing
on that same cable show

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were the former wives of the accusers.

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They testified that not only was
Rathbun’s allegation untrue,

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but it was actually he and his cronies
who were doing the beating.

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In 2003, it came up that Marty Rathbun
had been mistreating others.

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Marty Rathbun suddenly went and
leapt on top of Mike Rinder,

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and fought him to the ground
and started choking him and beating him.

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You do have written declarations that
Marty Rathbun was a violent man.

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He was a violent, psychotic man.

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But Alex Gibney intentionally
leaves out Rathbun’s violence,

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only mentioning it long enough
to accuse these women

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of making the whole thing up.

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But Gibney knows
they were telling the truth.

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Because true to form,
he once again “doctored the tape” –

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ignoring another inconvenient sound bite

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from that same cable television show-

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where Rathbun admits to his violence.

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I did some. And I didn’t come in here
ever telling you

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I was Little Lord Fauntleroy
and never did anything wrong.

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I’m no angel.

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But here, Rathbun is being less than candid.

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For this “I'm no Little Lord Fauntleroy”

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is in fact an emotionally disturbed
and vicious man,

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given to bouts of sudden
and extreme violence.

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He is notorious for punching,
kicking, spitting.

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As in his run-ins with this
documentary film crew

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- You can't do that! Marty!
- "Shut the fuck up,

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I'm telling you something right now mister.

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Do you hear me?!"

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In this violent outburst,

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Alex Gibney once again “doctors the tape”

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by spinning Marty Rathbun’s
subsequent arrest for assault as

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no big deal.

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Declarations signed under penalty of perjury

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document that Rathbun has committed

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at least 40 other acts of battery.

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And Alex Gibney had all of this
information at his fingertips.

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Yet none of it managed to find its way

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into his so-called documentary.

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Because once again,
Alex Gibney “doctored the tape.”

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He didn’t even mention Marty Rathbun’s
beatdown of Mike Rinder.

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A beating so savage
Rathbun would have killed him

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had five men not pulled him off.

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A beating that Rathbun later had to admit to

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in front of government authorities.

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And I literally had him by the lapels

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and I was shaking him
and bouncing him off the floor.

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But in a bizarre twist, Rathbun later
made Rinder second banana

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in his now-defunct “Independent” cult,

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even anointing Rinder
the first, and only minister

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in the Church of Marty Rathbun

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just so Rinder would
preside over his wedding.

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After which, Rathbun honeymooned
in New Orleans,

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where he threatened
a bouncer and two cops -

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and spent a night in jail.

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But Alex Gibney doesn’t mention
this in his documentary, either -

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because he “doctored the truth.”

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Just as he surgically removed Mike Rinder’s
own violent streak.

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Rinder himself has committed
a string of assaults,

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primarily against women –
one of them his wife,

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who he left with a permanent disability.

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Alex Gibney also “left out” the fact that

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the three other men prominently featured
in his documentary

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have a history of severe violence, as well:

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Here’s Tom De Vocht, who went on
punching sprees with Marty Rathbun.

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Before De Vocht abandoned his wife,

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he dragged her down a hallway by the hair.

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Jason Beghe, who attacked his gardener
over a weed whacker.

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He also beat up an officer of the court,

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was convicted of battery and had to pay
$19,000 in restitution.

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And Paul Haggis – he kept it in the family,

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assaulting his own sister.

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Do the backgrounds of any of these
“prized sources”

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rate a mention by Alex Gibney?

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That’s not the way this doctor operates.

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His is the mission of a propagandist –

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to ruthlessly do whatever it takes

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to get his audience to think
what he wants them to think.

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And so, Alex Gibney “doctors” it all.

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To stitch together a tale that
looks nothing like recognizable fact.

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It's not truth. It's Alex Gibney.

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HBO’s Doctor of Propaganda.